444 THE BREEDS OF LIVE-STOCK 



553. Types. To meet the modern demand, many 

 breeders of Essex swine are striving to develop a type with 

 more size, heavier bone and greater length. That they 

 are meeting with some degree of success is evidenced by 

 the types of Essex placed on exhibition at some of the fairs 

 during the past few years. This recent type gives more 

 promise of present-day utility than the type we have 

 been accustomed to see. 



554. Uses of Essex hogs. The Essex belongs to the 

 extremely quick maturing, easily fattened type. Its lack 

 of size prevents its becoming popular with the general 

 farmer, and it is more suited to the requirements of the 

 villager, who keeps one or two pigs, and who wishes to 

 use the minimum amount of food. He will not have so 

 many pounds of pork, but he will have a finished hog with 

 a small outlay. The breed is regarded as being a cheap 

 producer of meat, and no doubt such is the case ; but it 

 would not be safe to assume that it will always produce 

 meat at a lower cost than larger breeds. The meat from 

 the Essex is fine-grained, but excessively fat. 



The sows are not regarded as prolific, but a great deal 

 depends on how they are fed and managed. 



For cross-breeding, the Essex is suitable for crossing 

 with unduly coarse types. In the past, it played an im- 

 portant part in improving other breeds, but as the breeds 

 of swine have been brought to a finer type, the field of the 

 Essex has become narrowed, until the breed is now more 

 famous for what it has accomplished than for what it is 

 capable of doing at present. About the only important 

 opening for it in the United States at present, is the con- 

 quest of the " Razorback " of the South, and on this 

 mission it has already set forth. 



555. Distribution. The Essex has spread from its 



